In 'victory,' Lake Baldwin VA clinic will stay open

After being threatened with a closure that would have inconvenienced thousands of area veterans, the Lake Baldwin VA Outpatient Clinic will remain open, U.S. Rep. John Mica announced Friday.

"The Baldwin Park Clinic will remain open and the medical facilities there will continue to be used to serve our veterans," Mica said at a news conference. "This is a great victory for our veterans."

Mica, R-Winter Park, said he received the news in a letter from acting U.S. Secretary for Veterans Affairs Sloan Gibson.

Jerry Pierce, veteran and former chairman of the Central Florida Veterans Memorial Park Foundation, said he was "ecstatic" to learn the news.

"We have 2,600 veterans visiting that clinic every day. And that number is rising," Pierce said. "We needed it to stay open. Our congressional leaders worked really hard for this."

The long-awaited Orlando VA Medical Center in Lake Nona is expected to start seeing patients in summer 2015. VA officials considered closing the Baldwin Park clinic and transitioning its outpatient medical services to Lake Nona. That would have meant a long drive for many veterans seeking care.

However, a VA analysis found that the medical needs of the veteran population were growing and that the "current workload already exceeds the projected workload" that was projected for 2023, according to Gibson's letter.

The VA "substantiated that we have the veteran population through 2023 and beyond to support both the new Lake Nona VA Hospital and the Baldwin Park Clinic," said Mica, who is among those who have strongly advocated for keeping the Lake Baldwin VA facility open.

Neil Euliano, a 77-year-old U.S. Army veteran who lives in Winter Springs, welcomed the news.

"That is really good for a lot of us," said Euliano, who frequents the clinic for hearing services. "Not to take away anything from what's going on at Lake Nona, but this location is so much more convenient for me and so many other veterans."

The clinic's fate had been at stake for more than two years, pending this analysis.

"We're a growing population and an aging population," said Mica, referring to Central Florida's 400,000 veterans.

What remains in question, however, is just what services will continue to be offered.

Local VA officials submitted a proposal asking specifically that mental-health programs; primary care; and compensation and pension examinations continue to be available at the Baldwin Park clinic, said Orlando VA Medical Center spokesman Mike Strickler.

"However, we still don't know exactly what services will be retained," Strickler said. "We're still trying to figure out what it all means. It shouldn't be too long until we know."